War in the Pacific

In September 1940, with the permission of the pro-Nazi
Vichy
government of France, Japan moved into northern French
Indochina,
establishing a foothold in strategically important
Southeast Asia.
A few days later, Japan signed a mutual defense agreement,
the
Tripartite Pact, with Germany and Italy, putting it on a
collision
course with the United States. The German invasion of the
Soviet
Union in June 1941 relieved the Japanese of the Soviet
threat in
East Asia. As a result, in July 1941 Japan decided to move
its
troops into southern French Indochina for possible
operations
against the oil-rich Netherlands Indies. The United States
responded by freezing Japanese assets in the United States
and
imposing an oil embargo on Japan. Britain, the
Commonwealth of
Nations countries, and the government of the Netherlands
Indies
quickly followed suit, cutting 90 percent of Japan's oil
imports.
Faced with a choice of submitting to United States demands
for a
return to the pre-1931 status quo or confronting the
United States,
Japan determined to strike out boldly. Beginning with a
devastating
attack against the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii, on
December 7, 1941, it quickly took advantage of superior
air and
naval power to occupy the Philippines, the Netherlands
Indies,
Malaya, and Singapore. An overland offensive brought Burma
and
Thailand under Japanese control, and a string of
amphibious
operations established Japan's control of the South
Pacific. By
mid-1942 Japanese forces appeared to be in control of most
of their
objectives
(see
fig. 2).

It was at this point that the superior economic and
industrial
power of the United States began to turn the tide. In June
1942,
the Japanese directed the bulk of their navy to Midway, a
tiny
atoll at the northern tip of the Hawaiian chain, expecting
to
destroy the rest of the United States Pacific fleet.
Instead, the
United States, forewarned of the attack, used
carrier-based
aircraft to devastate the Japanese fleet. The United
States
counteroffensive had begun. In the South Pacific, after
six months
of heavy fighting, Japanese forces evacuated Guadalcanal
in
February 1943. From there, revitalized United States and
Allied
forces retook most of the South Pacific islands occupied
by the
overextended Japanese forces. By June 1944, United States
and
Allied forces had reached Saipan, in the Mariana Islands,
putting
their bombers within range of the Japanese homeland.

When United States air, ground, and sea power began to
reverse
the tide of Japanese victories, the authority of the
Japanese
forces began to wane in the captured territories. At home
in Japan,
however, respect remained high until intensive United
States aerial
bombardment there raised popular doubt about the
military's ability
to win the war. It was not until the last days of the war,
after
the United States had dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima
and
Nagasaki, that the emperor, in an unprecedented political
act,
compelled the general staff to accept the terms for
surrender.

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